Yellowknife is 250 miles south of the arctic circle and as our nephew and Melissa’s godson, Mitch is working as a pilot up there, we have been super keen to visit him and explore his subarctic world. Indeed we are not alone in our curiosity of the North West Territories - with television programs such as Ice Truckers, Arctic Air and Ice Pilots NWT, it has pretty much captured the imagination of anyone with a sense of adventure. Comparing the two cities: Calgary is a no nonsense, international airport with heavy security. Yellowknife is much, much smaller, is shroud in snow and has a stuffed, life size polar bear (thats right!), atop of the luggage carousel. We flew in rather comfortably on Air Canada which took just over two hours and headed out to our rental car. The car was a Jeep 4-by-4, with heated seats and as was the norm, a cute polar bear shaped license plate. Our hotel was just around the corner, as is pretty much everything in Yellowknife.This is a good thing, because the speed limit on the majority of the towns roads is 30 km/hr. This makes sense when you consider that the roads are covered in snow for a fair portion of the year and a common mode of transportation is the Ski-Doo.
After we settled into our hotel, our next stop was over to visit our nephew Mitch. Mitch and his partner Paige - who is also a pilot - had just bought a new home and we were keen to check it out. We had expected to be visiting just the two of them, plus their delightful Yorkie Milo, but boy were we in for a surprise! As we were about to knock on the door, it swung open to reveal Monique and René, Melissa's sister and our brother in law, Mitch's parents, who had flown in as a surprise - from Ottawa - to meet up with us (and of course to see their son!). We were completely shocked by this and so happy to see them! The two of us shuffled our way into the warm, inviting house, our chilled bodies were then warmed by hugs and their welcome smiles. We were both very touched that they had gone out of their way to meet us here in Yellowknife which is so, so far away from our respective homes.
We spent many hours after this, catching up, having a tour of their house, eating lunch and of course doing our laundry. Colin and Melissa had a lot of questions about how Mitch was getting along, plus some general things about this brave new world that we both were starting to discover. As dinner approached Paige came home in her Air Tindi flight overalls, like a total rockstar - just an ordinary day at the office, where her 'desk' was inside the cockpit of a 50 seat Dash-7. We then sat down to eat a delightful (home cooked!) meal, prepared expertly by René.
The next day, we were given a tour of Yellowknife by Mitch and Paige. We visited the old town and viewed Great Slave Lake and the surrounding town from a chilly lookout known as Bush Pilots monument. We were both very cold in the brisk wind. For us, the temperature was minus five which was 17 degrees colder in comparison to Calgary. We were in no way as hardy as the residents of Yellowknife where it is known to approach minus forty. We toured a few art galleries that contained a good selection of local art, most of which was created by residents who live North of the 60th parallel. Unfortunately the Wildcat Cafe, the original log cabin that has been in operation since the 1930’s, was closed for the season, but we did have a lovely meal at the Black Knight Pub. We also visited Air Tindi, including a hanger where one of the Dash-7’s that Paige co-pilots and one of the Caravan’s that Mitch pilots were stored for maintenance. Colin also bought an Air Tindi cap and he was sure to have both Mitch and Paige wear it, so that he could brag that it had been worn by genuine Air Tindi Yellowknife pilots.
On our next day there, both René and Monique were leaving for their home in Ottawa, but before he left René wanted to purchase a new iPhone at the reduced NWT tax of 5%. Melissa was also keen to get a new phone as her existing model was getting a bit long in the tooth. So far she had been unable to find the exact colour and model she wanted anywhere. Mitch rang around a few places and who would have thought it, but the exact rose gold iPhone 6 Plus that Melissa wanted was here in Yellowknife, despite the fact that it was not available in much larger cities. What a unique souvenir to pick up from Yellowknife!
The weather while we stayed there was overcast at night and it snowed a little, so unfortunately we did not see the aurora borealis (the northern lights). We really enjoyed hanging out with Mitch and Paige, playing some fun games, watching a video, playing fetch with Milo and talking to them about their life in Yellowknife and about flying. The best part was, without a doubt, having Monique and René just 'drop by' and have the chance to hang out with them too. It may have been minus five outside, but being inside amongst our family was like a long, lazy summer day.
Next up: Over Hill and Under Hill to British Columbia
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